Summer Applications

You are strongly
encouraged to read the application and
admission policy below before applying.

Eligibility and Admissions Criteria

Participation in the summer program of the
Aspen Center for Physics is by application
and invitation only. Application to the
summer program is open to members of the
entire international
physics-astrophysics-mathematics-biology
community at the postdoctoral level and
above. A senior graduate student may be
accepted as a participant only in
exceptional circumstances.

Each year, the number of applicants is
larger than the number of available places,
and therefore we are unable to invite all
those who apply. Scientific excellence is
the single most important criterion in the
selection of participants, as measured by
past accomplishment or, for junior
researchers, by promise. Relevance to a
particular workshop is considered so that in
each week of a workshop, there will be a
strong group of participants who will
contribute the variety of viewpoints and
expertise needed to ensure the success of
the workshop. Working groups that will bring
scientifically outstanding participants to
the Center and are on topics complementary
to the concurrent workshop receive special
consideration.

In order to broaden participation, special
consideration is given to junior
researchers, to applicants who have never
visited the Center, and to the many worthy
applicants who were not admitted in previous
summers due to space limitations. In
addition, special consideration is given to
applicants from smaller institutions who
have demonstrated a serious commitment to
research and can derive particular benefit
from the active research environment at the
Center.

Application Instructions, Step by Step

All applicants need to provide:

contact information

current institutional affiliation and
title

PhD year

list of three recent publications

brief description of research
interests

If you think the admissions committee might
be unfamiliar with your work, you may add a
letter of
recommendation to your
application. Your recommender should email
the letter to acp@aspenphys.org by January
31.

Applicants will be asked to indicate a
preferred length of stay, in weeks. The
Aspen Center for Physics provides a unique
environment for extended discussion and
collaborative research of a type not
generally possible at shorter workshops and
conferences. The Center thus requires that
participants stay at the Center for a minimum of two full
working weeks, with stays of
three and four weeks encouraged and stays of
five weeks possible (read
more about the benefit/cost ratio of long
stays here).

A small and
strictly limited number of one-week
stays are allowed each summer
to enable attendance by physicists whose
work is central to a particular workshop or
working group but who are not able to
participate for two weeks or longer because
of professional or personal commitments such
as laboratory management or
childcare/eldercare arrangements. Read
more about applying for a one-week stay
here.

Before indicating your scheduling
preferences and constraints, you should
carefully review your other summer
commitments to ensure that if admitted for
the weeks you request, you can attend for
the full working weeks that you are offered.

If you are applying
to participate in a single workshop,
first double check the weeks for which the
workshop is scheduled here. If
you are applying to participate for the
entire workshop, put the length of the
workshop as your length of stay and select
"P" (preferred) for each week of the
workshop. If your preferred length of stay
is shorter than the length of the workshop,
indicate your preferred length of stay.
Select "I" (impossible) for the weeks of the
workshop you CANNOT attend, select "P" for
all weeks of the workshop you would prefer
to attend, and select "A" (acceptable) for
any week of the workshop that you would be
able to attend for the full working week but
is not your first choice. Please keep in
mind that flexibility
in scheduling improves your chance of
being admitted.See
exampleshere.

If you are applying
to participate in a working group,
you should first coordinate with the other
members of the working group to agree on a
preferred length for the working group
(minimum two weeks) and determine the length
of the period in which all members of the
working group can be present at the Center.
Each member should indicate "P" (preferred)
for the weeks in those periods. To increase
scheduling flexibility, and thus the chance
that the working group will be accepted, the
members of the working group can indicate
"A" (acceptable) weeks. Please keep in mind
that the beginning and ending weeks of our
summer program are the least heavily
subscribed. See examples here.

If you are applying
to participate for individual research,
you should first indicate your preferred
length of stay. For each week of the 16 week
summer program, put "I" (impossible) if you
cannot attend for the full working week, "P"
for your preferred weeks, and "A" for any
week of the summer program that you would be
able to attend for the full working week but
is not your first choice. Please keep in
mind that flexibility in scheduling improves
your chances of being admitted, and that the
beginning and ending weeks of our summer
program are the least heavily subscribed.
See examples here.

Persons applying
to two or more workshops or other
combinations of activity
should add relevant information to the
comments box. See examples here.

Applicants requesting
a one-week stay because of
professional or personal commitments may use
the comments box to add any information that
they want the admissions committee to take
into consideration. See examples here.

Each member of a two-physicist
couple who would like to
participate in the summer program at the
Center must complete a separate
application. Couples may apply jointly
or independently. To apply jointly, both
members of the couple should indicate this
on their applications and provide the name
of the significant other. With a joint
application, both members of the couple will
be accepted or not accepted together for the
same weeks, and should coordinate with each
other to put the same "P" (preferred), "A"
(acceptable), and "I" (impossible)
designations for each week. With independent
applications, your applications will be
considered separately. If both members of
the couple would like to be at the Center
for the same or overlapping weeks, please
note that in the comments box on the
application and include the name of your
significant other.

Please note that if you are admitted and
requested a stay of three weeks or longer,
the length of stay you are offered may be
shorter (though never shorter than two
weeks) due to the Center's scheduling
constraints.